Before the Tower of Heaven
by Kandros Fir
Summary: We all know Jellal had to come from somewhere. What was his life like before the Tower? A story of what little childhood Jellal had told through the eyes of his older brother.
1. Chapter 1

I love my mom and dad, but boy did they have horrible naming sense, especially for babies. When I was born they were seriously considering naming me Foo-Foo Cuddlykins, but then my grandparents intervened and I was named Gerome instead. Now my grandparents were dead, may god have mercy upon their souls, and my parents were expecting another boy. Currently they were recycling through "manly" names so that their child would grow up big and strong. They were exploring Strongarm, Mightysoul, and Greatwarrior. These weren't names they were titles of heroes in cheap third rate adventure novels, which is where I suspected my parents of pulling these name out from. In the end we settled on something mundane, well sort of. I suggested Gerard which they mutated to Jellal and approved of. I resolved to teach the boy to introduce himself as Gerard so he wouldn't be bullied in class as he got older

A/N: This is the introduction to a new series I am planning- Jellal's life before the Tower of Heaven, told through the eyes of his older brother. It is mainly a oneshot series that will go along in chronological order, but not with a central plot structure. I apologize if others have done this before with better results. It will go until Jellal is six years old, because I believe that is about when he was taken to the tower according to the manga.


	2. Chapter 2

p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 48px;"A/N: A little note, schools in Jellal's town are a lot like regular schools, except they teach magic and there is less of a focus on other disciplines. Like half the school period for magic than the rest on developing basic reading writing skills etc. for a mage anyways. Not so for those without magic./p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"God damn, I hate taking care of my baby brother. I mean I do have a social life I should be attending to this vacation week. My parents have decided that I have nothing better to do than take care of Jellal as they left on one of their customary "honeymoon trips" which was just another way of saying they were going to explore a perversion that they had yet to do with each other. I remember following them once and being scarred for life as they had a BDSM themed week.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;" p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"Jellal then chose that moment to let out a piercing wail. Sometimes it felt like I was dealing with a demanding machine that required constant care otherwise it broke down. I comb over my list of cure all trouble shoots and decided that damn the baby was hungry and there is no food in the house, for either of us. Stupid parents, they probably meant to go shopping but had forgotten. Sometimes it felt I was the only adult in the house.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"I am not looking forward to the trip. It was pouring buckets outside, like the gods were providing an opportunity for fed up teens to drown their annoying baby brothers… Snap out of it Gerome, bad boy. The police will find out, then where will your future be? Plus as he got older, Jellal would make a good minion. I just had to grit my teeth and bear with it for now.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"I put on the baby carrier, completely mortified. There was something humiliating about carrying a baby on your back in public, especially considering I was in high school. I console myself with the fact that there would be few people my age out today so my reputation wouldn't be ruined. I had worked hard to establish myself as a badass and there's be no way I'd let some baby ruin that.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"So I head to the mall down the street and enter to pick up some baby food and some ingredients to cook my own dinner; I had learned early on not to rely on my parents for much, only to run into Ayano; who is perhaps the hottest girl in school. She has a pretty face with full scrumptious lips that beg to be kissed, two round hills on her chest that the perverts in the school estimate to be around an E cup and a curvy figure that suggests regular exercise. She was also one of the strongest mages in the school, beaten only by me and several others. Most of the boys in the school want to bang her. I am no exception.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"I felt like dying right there. I pray to melt into the floors, to become a puddle so I don't have to live with the humiliation of the hottest girl in school learning that I was some pansy taking care of his brother. My brain fries and rational thought perishes, leaving me hanging onto autopilot to stammer out stupid things and blush like I have a fever.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""Hi Gerome, how are you?" she greets me, with the look on her face that suggested she really wants to know why the hell I have a baby on my back but is too polite to ask.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"strongLie to her, strongthe ghost of rational Jerome says, strongit is too late to avoid taking damage to the reputation you've built up, but tell her that you're babysitting to raise some money to avoid the worst of it. No one needs to know you have a baby brother to take care of./strong/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"Of course, my auto pilot was too much of a dumbass to listen and instead blurts out, "I'm fine, completely fine. I just have to take care of my baby brother while my parents are away on a mission, yeah, to defeat some bandits that have been seen hanging around town," hey give me some credit, I have some sense of social preservation, "and they'll be gone for a week, and we have no food at home, so I have to buy some baby food and some groceries so I can cook for myself."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""You can cook? That completely changes my image of you." She says, and I nearly face palm at my stupidity for mentioning that. At this point I was playing the game "How badly can I eff up my reputation in front of the most popular girl in school" and I am succeeding spectacularly.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""Yeah, my parents aren't particularly reliable so I learned to feed myself."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""I thought I was the only one! Though in my case, it isn't that my parents don't do it, it is that it would be dangerous if they did. Anyways, want to go shopping together?"p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"I was ready to die then too, but this time from ecstasy not embarrassment. As we walked she chattered about various vegetables, spices and fruits and how they could be used in cooking. I think I only comprehended about twenty percent of what she was saying, I was staring at her lips wondering how they'd taste if I kissed them, or wondering if her hair was as silky as it looked.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"Finally we get to the point of paying for things at the cash register and she has to leave for her house. As we walk outside she says, "I'm glad I met you here, at school you seem so terrifying it's hard to approach you. I like this gentler side."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"As she turn to walk home I am ready to die of happiness. I decide to push my luck even further and ask, "If you don't mind, could you teach me how to cook?"p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""What?" She asks, seeming confused.p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""Well, I am self-taught and don't know many recipes; plus when my brother gets older he might be a fussy eater so it's good to have variety. And there is no one else I can turn to, I'd be a laughing stock if this got out."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;""It's so cute how you think of your brother; of course I'll help. Meet me tomorrow at the home economics room. School should still be open despite vacation week, and Ms. Katsura will still be there."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"As she left I gave a fist pump and thank the gods for this wonderful encounter, then I look at my little brother and think, "Maybe you aren't such a bad squirt after all."p  
>p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"The feeling passes with the stench that comes out of his diapers.p

Please don't crucify me for my terrible attempts at humor *cringes*.


End file.
